I shouldn't have been surprised, I know. But I really wanted to see what it could do. I mean, my 16 1/2" WWII has only seen duty splitting kindling for months now, not even really chopping stuff. And I really wanted to take a hard swing at something.
So I was out splitting firewood with the ax/maul, got a good sized round of clear maple quartered, and needed to split those quarters into eighths to work well in the fireplace instead of the woodstove. The khuk was right there, so I thought why not? I'm bored with the ax, after all ...
Line up carefully, gauge the distance, check that the whirling arc of death would intersect not only with the top of the piece, but also the top of the chopping block ... visualize swinging 8" into the piece and ...
Whack!
Two chunks of maple fell neatly on either side of the chopping block. My jaw hit the ground in disbelief a millisecond later. Gotta be a mistake - this blade, while thick and convexed, is no splitting-ax profile. Set 'er up, try again.
Whack! Chunk, chunk.
This is way cool! Those maple quarters were about 7-8" across the back of the wedge, maybe the same distance through to the point of the wedge. Not exactly huge, but not small either. And the weather being what it is, there's some frost in them - which always makes maple split more easily.
Half an hour later, face nearly split in two by a grin, I left the sorry field of battle strewn with the broken and mangled corpses of my foes. The convex edge clearly has enough wedge shape to it to give a good splitting action - not like a maul, but much better than I'd expected. Not surprisingly, the khuk hung up in big knots, not having enough weight to just power through. Heh heh ... guess I need to shark a big AK for those bits...
So I was out splitting firewood with the ax/maul, got a good sized round of clear maple quartered, and needed to split those quarters into eighths to work well in the fireplace instead of the woodstove. The khuk was right there, so I thought why not? I'm bored with the ax, after all ...
Line up carefully, gauge the distance, check that the whirling arc of death would intersect not only with the top of the piece, but also the top of the chopping block ... visualize swinging 8" into the piece and ...
Whack!
Two chunks of maple fell neatly on either side of the chopping block. My jaw hit the ground in disbelief a millisecond later. Gotta be a mistake - this blade, while thick and convexed, is no splitting-ax profile. Set 'er up, try again.
Whack! Chunk, chunk.
This is way cool! Those maple quarters were about 7-8" across the back of the wedge, maybe the same distance through to the point of the wedge. Not exactly huge, but not small either. And the weather being what it is, there's some frost in them - which always makes maple split more easily.
Half an hour later, face nearly split in two by a grin, I left the sorry field of battle strewn with the broken and mangled corpses of my foes. The convex edge clearly has enough wedge shape to it to give a good splitting action - not like a maul, but much better than I'd expected. Not surprisingly, the khuk hung up in big knots, not having enough weight to just power through. Heh heh ... guess I need to shark a big AK for those bits...
